Istanbul, Turkey, conjures to mind far-off days of Constantinople and historic works of architecture, from stone masonry homes ot ornate mosques, but there is a colorful variety to the city’s more modern buildings, too, as captured in this photo series.

An architect and photographer, Yener Torun photographs elements of the city’s past, but focuses mostly on more contemporary structures with minimalist forms, modern geometries, and above all: rich rainbows of color.

One could get the wrong impression looking at his work, because indeed it takes work at times to find the most vibrant examples.“I dig every corner of the city to unearth these colorful gems,” he explains. “Finding these places in this gray mass is quite like a treasure hunt.”

“My primary motive was to document a different, less-known part of Istanbul to escape from the one dimensional and orientalist perception…I believe increasing the variety of aspects provides a better understanding of the city, both for the viewers and me. Even long-term residents can’t believe these pictures were taken in the city they live in.”

So in some ways, he surfaces lesser-seen sides of the city. Together, his photos paint a picture, or create a collage, of a very selective sort, but then again: what architectural photographers really do otherwise? Near San Francisco, the colorful hilltop houses of Daly City often become stand-ins for local vernacular, even if they only show one side.

Using a simple material palette of thread, wood and nails, artist Gabriel Dawe‘s latest cascading color creation combines thousands of threads to make a remarkable interior rainbow.

Plexus #35 is on display at the Toledo Museum of Art (images by Andrew Weber), a featured highlight in the center of the Great Gallery illuminated against dark red walls and framed oil paintings via a skylight above.

The entire color spectrum is represented, meticulously organized strand by strand — a single twist between a pair of origin and termination lines ensures that the work appears different from every angle.

Other works by Dawe feature similar themes in different hues and shades, often intricately woven to create overlaps. By comparison, this is one of his simplest pieces yet arguably one of his most powerful.

“Originally from Mexico City, Gabriel Dawe creates site-specific installations that explore the connection between fashion and architecture, and how they relate to the human need for shelter in all its shapes and forms.”

“His work is centered in the exploration of textiles, aiming to examine the complicated construction of gender and identity in his native Mexico and attempting to subvert the notions of masculinity and machismo prevalent in the present day.”

A revolutionary desk and wall clock design overlays a time-telling dial on a gradient of colors balancing dawn, noon, dusk and midnight to show you the time passing as a function of 24 rather than simply 12 hours.

This new clock, dubbed Today, is a followup project to The Present, another wall-mounted timepiece that traces the course of the year across all four seasons, likely tied to a color spectrum.

Creator Scott Thrift explains his design inspiration: “The creative adventure of producing, distributing, and giving talks about The Present gradually opened my mind to seeing time as a spectrum. Think of it this way: on one end of the ‘spectrum of time’ you have the standard clock that reveals every second of every minute of every hour at a glance.”

“On the opposite end of the spectrum we find The Present. As a balancing corrective between these two points on the “spectrum of time” is Today, a timepiece that reveals the entire day at a glance.”

Of course, there is no limit to pushing boundaries when it comes to time tracking. Perhaps a clock that measures years of a life or a speedy timepiece that spins with every heartbeat will be next on the list for Thrift.

Made to been seen at high speeds, these colorful patterns intentionally form a sequential whole when experienced by commuters in adjacent railway cars.

Katharina Grosse (with photos by Steve Weinik for the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program) conceived of this seven-section series, dubbed Psycholustro, as a way to engage everyday travelers with a project that addresses their in-motion perspective and the passage of time.

Grosse, a German artist based out of Berlin, targeted different sites with different bright colors, in some cases covering up existing graffiti on buildings or walls (with the expectation of re-tagging by other artists).

Lime green lights up an abandoned warehouse while bright orange highlights multiple structures and exposed rocks.

In a potentially controversial move, however, a purple area covers not only piles of rocks but also sections of nature, including grasses, shrubs and trees.

Grosse describes her project as something that “shifts your notion of size through movement” seeming huge from up close but to scale when you pass it by from your seat on a train.

Stephen Gardner, an Amtrak vice president, explains the project’s impetus: “There are some things that we can do better than other competing modes of transport, and that is to provide the traveler with a deeper engagement with the diverse landscape. One of our taglines is, “Enjoy the Journey.'”

A site-specific installation in a New York City storefront, this twisting multi-colored tunnel was suspended in mid-air and held together with no less than 17,000 standard office bind clips.

Composed of over 4,000 panels of high-gloss photographic paper, CHROMAtex from SOFTlab (photos by Alan Tansey) was designed to suck passers by right in (proverbially not literally, fortunately for pedestrians).

Situated in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, this sculptural work was built from the outside in. As illustrated in the video above, it slowly took shape as it moved from the front of the empty shop toward the back, breaking out into various subsidiary tunnels along the way.

These twists in turn split and curve, morphing from circular tubes into square ports and providing other internal perspectives for those curious enough to enter the interior space in order to see more of the suspended sculpture.

SOFTlab itself is composed of “artists, believers, listeners, directors, geeks, architects, sketchers, dreamers, programmers” and above all: designers. It was created by Michael Szivos who has a degree from the “Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia University. The studio has since been involved in the design and production of projects across almost every medium, from digitally fabricated large-scale sculpture, to interactive design, to immersive digital video installations. As the studio adjusted to a wide range of projects, we began to focus less on the medium and style and more on ideas [and] we are able to approach every project from a fresh perspective to create rich spatial, graphic, interactive and visual experiences.”